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As the fierce yet fun 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee heads into its final round Thursday, the importance and value of spelling take center stage. Does being an excellent speller correlate with higher intelligence? Make a person a better problem solver? Prepare spelling whiz kids to better handle stress?
“Yes, to some varying degrees,” Corrie Loeffler, executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, told USA TODAY. “Whether you win or lose, you walk away not only having a good knowledge of words, but you gain an inner strength and a poise that comes along with it.”
This week, about 230 spellers ranging in age from 9-14 from across the United States and the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico began battling to correctly spell thousands of words to become the bee’s best. Nearly 80%, roughly 182 spellers, are competing in their first bee this year. The remaining 49 spellers have previously participated in what’s known as the nation’s longest-running educational competition.
“I think people generally make the assumption that they do this so well that they have a high IQ,” said renowned literacy expert and linguist Louisa Moats, who has been researching the traits of good and poor spellers for more than 50 years. “It’s not a fair assessment to assume they have exceptional abilities across the board. They may and they may not.”
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Moats, who co-authored a 2008 study on spelling, says spelling is better learned through sounds, letters and pronunciation, not memorizing a bunch of words with flashcards. And excellent spellers, like those participating in the national bee, are familiar with words from at least eight different languages, she said. “They have a high level of discipline and motivation to learn a lot about how words work in various languages.”
High-achieving spellers do share similar traits, said Matt Eventoff, a communication strategist and owner of Princeton Public Speaking in New Jersey. They have “a great curiosity as they distill really complex polysyllabic words,” he said. “Let’s face it, their verbal dexterity is far deeper than the average person.”
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Daunting competition, valuable lessons
Loeffler, a three-time national bee competitor, said bee participants could be considered “word detectives.” She said it’s almost routine for participants to ask judges certain questions to gather any clues, including the root and origins of a complex word.
Loeffler recalled being tied for sixth place in the 1995 national spelling bee, her highest finish, to misspelling in the second round in the 1996 contest.
“I flamed out,” Loeffler said. “Obviously, it didn’t quell my passion for the spelling bee as I’m here in this capacity. I’m so grateful for everything l learned that I can’t imagine it happening any other way.”
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When great spellers get the proper pronunciation cues they are able to make an “educated guess” where those words originate if they are either Greek, Latin, French, or even old English, Moats said.
“It’s an open question to me because they are pretty bright and have linguistic problem-solving skills,” said Moats, recalling her dissertation at Harvard University on the academic challenges of spelling in 1982. “Some may have similar abilities in math, spatial and social problem-solving.”
A 2019 study by researchers from the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education said people do not see spelling deficiencies as a sign of limited intellect.
The researchers based their findings on analyzing a series of written text messages. They concluded that although misspellings in texts have some influence on the perception of the text writers’ wit and intelligence, “it is rather weak and probably less significant.”
The researchers believe there’s now an increased tolerance for spelling mistakes.
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National bee spellers can handle their share of stress
Many of the national spellers competing deal with stress with a mixture of “confidence and calm,” Loeffler said.
“They’re on a big stage with lights and cameras perhaps facing their biggest fears so far in their lives, public speaking,” Loeffler said. “I think it’s pretty remarkable.”
In her nearly five decades of following the bee, Moats believes participants attempt to summon up the ability to control their nerves. “A lot of kids who can spell, but can’t stand that scenario, still take the risk of being right or being wrong,” Moats said.
By seeing the competition up close as a participant and an executive, Loeffler said national spelling bee participants all have some sort of “grit” to get to this level.
“Every year, we hear over and over that besides the competition, the spellers love the connections they make with each other,” Loeffler said. “When they get a few years removed from here, many say this was one of the turning points in their lives. They had the chops to be on a national stage.”
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